-Bonaparte was not a royalist or a Jacobin, not a conservative or a liberal, though his attitudes were a bit of both
-Authority was his great concern
-Hostility toward the unjust and ineffective institutions of the old regime
-Commitment to equality of opportunity and continued to espouse that liberal premise
-Social gains of the revolution would be preserved through political centralization and authoritarian control
-But he concentrated his government on raising men and money for his armies and turned his back on revolutionary liberties
B. Political and Religious Settlements
1. Centralization
-Gave France a constitution that placed almost unchecked authority in the hands of a First Consul (himself) for ten years
-Constitutional revisions increased executive power and diminished the legislative branch until 1802, converted the consulship into a lifetime post, the second, in 1804, proclaimed Napoleon hereditary emperor
-Council of State advised the rule, drafted legislation under his direction, and monitored public officials
-System of local government came close to the kind of royal centralization that public opinion had roundly condemned in 1789
-Eliminated elections that the Revolution had emphasized
-Each department was no administered by a prefect appointed by the ruler
-Limited local autonomy and self-government
-Gov’t permitted no organized opposition, reduced the number of newspapers drastically, and censored the remaining ones
2. Concordat
-Napoleon judged that most concessions to Catholic sentiment were in order, provided that the Church remained under the control of the state
-In 1801, he negotiated a Concordat, or agreement, with Pope Pius VII stipulated that Catholicism was the “preferred religion” of France but it protected religious freedom for non-Catholics
-As a major concession to the Revolution, the Concordat stipulated that land confiscated from the Church and sold during the Revolution would be retained by its purchases
-Government dropped the ten-day week and restored the Gregorian Calendar
-Balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in the state’s favor
-Eventually Pope Pius renounced the Concordat
C. The Era of the Notables
-Hierarchical society to counteract what he regarded as the excessive individualism of revolutionary social policy
-Napoleon intended to reassert the authority of the state, elites, and the father (in family life)
-Napoleon used the state’s appointive powers to confer status on prominent local individuals, or notables, thus associating them with his regime
-Chosen from the largest taxpayers
-Honored by induction into the Legion of Honor, nine tenths of whose members were military men
-“It is with trinkets that mankind is governed” –Napoleon
-Appointed to prestigious but powerless bodies
-Chartered a national bank that enjoyed the credit power derived from official ties to the state
-In education, secondary schools, or lycees to train future government officials, engineers, and officers
-Called the University
1. Civil Code
-Civil code regulating social relations and property rights (Napoleonic Code)
-Revolutionary law code that progressives throughout Europe embraced
-Swept away feudal property relations and gave legal sanction to modern contractual notions of property
-Code established the right to choose one’s occupation, to receive equal treatment under the law, and religious toleration
-However, it allowed employers to dominate their workers by prohibiting strikes and trade unions
-The code didn’t match property rights with popular rights like the right to subsistence
-Napoleon undid most of emancipation of women and children by restoring the father’s absolute authority in the family
-Deprived wives of property and juridical rights established during the 1790s
-Prefectorial system of local government, the Civil Code, the Concordat, the University, the Legion of Honor and local bodies of notables were all durable institutions
-Fulfilled Napoleon’s desire to create “granite masses” on which to reconstruct French Society
-Skillful compromises between revolutionary liberalism and an older belief in central authority and hierarchy
-Bonaparte was not a royalist or a Jacobin, not a conservative or a liberal, though his attitudes were a bit of both
-Authority was his great concern
-Hostility toward the unjust and ineffective institutions of the old regime
-Commitment to equality of opportunity and continued to espouse that liberal premise
-Social gains of the revolution would be preserved through political centralization and authoritarian control
-But he concentrated his government on raising men and money for his armies and turned his back on revolutionary liberties
B. Political and Religious Settlements
1. Centralization
-Gave France a constitution that placed almost unchecked authority in the hands of a First Consul (himself) for ten years
-Constitutional revisions increased executive power and diminished the legislative branch until 1802, converted the consulship into a lifetime post, the second, in 1804, proclaimed Napoleon hereditary emperor
-Council of State advised the rule, drafted legislation under his direction, and monitored public officials
-System of local government came close to the kind of royal centralization that public opinion had roundly condemned in 1789
-Eliminated elections that the Revolution had emphasized
-Each department was no administered by a prefect appointed by the ruler
-Limited local autonomy and self-government
-Gov’t permitted no organized opposition, reduced the number of newspapers drastically, and censored the remaining ones
2. Concordat
-Napoleon judged that most concessions to Catholic sentiment were in order, provided that the Church remained under the control of the state
-In 1801, he negotiated a Concordat, or agreement, with Pope Pius VII stipulated that Catholicism was the “preferred religion” of France but it protected religious freedom for non-Catholics
-As a major concession to the Revolution, the Concordat stipulated that land confiscated from the Church and sold during the Revolution would be retained by its purchases
-Government dropped the ten-day week and restored the Gregorian Calendar
-Balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in the state’s favor
-Eventually Pope Pius renounced the Concordat
C. The Era of the Notables
-Hierarchical society to counteract what he regarded as the excessive individualism of revolutionary social policy
-Napoleon intended to reassert the authority of the state, elites, and the father (in family life)
-Napoleon used the state’s appointive powers to confer status on prominent local individuals, or notables, thus associating them with his regime
-Chosen from the largest taxpayers
-Honored by induction into the Legion of Honor, nine tenths of whose members were military men
-“It is with trinkets that mankind is governed” –Napoleon
-Appointed to prestigious but powerless bodies
-Chartered a national bank that enjoyed the credit power derived from official ties to the state
-In education, secondary schools, or lycees to train future government officials, engineers, and officers
-Called the University
1. Civil Code
-Civil code regulating social relations and property rights (Napoleonic Code)
-Revolutionary law code that progressives throughout Europe embraced
-Swept away feudal property relations and gave legal sanction to modern contractual notions of property
-Code established the right to choose one’s occupation, to receive equal treatment under the law, and religious toleration
-However, it allowed employers to dominate their workers by prohibiting strikes and trade unions
-The code didn’t match property rights with popular rights like the right to subsistence
-Napoleon undid most of emancipation of women and children by restoring the father’s absolute authority in the family
-Deprived wives of property and juridical rights established during the 1790s
-Prefectorial system of local government, the Civil Code, the Concordat, the University, the Legion of Honor and local bodies of notables were all durable institutions
-Fulfilled Napoleon’s desire to create “granite masses” on which to reconstruct French Society
-Skillful compromises between revolutionary liberalism and an older belief in central authority and hierarchy